 Robyn Silvernagle's team of North Battleford played shorthanded in winning 6-4 over Switzerland's Michele Jaeggi to kick off this week's Nutrien Ag Solutions Western Showdown in her home province of Saskatchewan. Second Chaelynn Kitz has a new job as a firefighter and is unable to play at the 25-team competition in Swift Current. Silvernagle originally hoped to bring in a spare but that plan was scuttled due to player illness. Jaeggi opening scoring one with the hammer in the first end, then after a blank end, Silvernagle scored 2 in the third end. This time Jaeggi blanked thie fourth end, scoring a single in the fifth end to tie the game at 2, then added a steal in the sixth end to take back the lead. Silvernagle scored 2 in the seventh end, then forced Jaeggi to a single point leading to an extra end where Silvernagle scored 2 for the win. The team may pick up another substitute but the plan for now is to give it a go as a three-player side. "You never know, sometimes there might be a benefit to having two people throwing an extra rock," Silvernagle said. "But that poor sweeper has to sweep everything and judge everything on their own. So it's a little more that way." "Even though they're sweeping technically one less rock, they're still doing it all by themselves instead of having that extra person to relay off of. But we'll see." Silvernagle, third Kelly Schafer and lead Kara Thevenot were scheduled to open against Switzerland's Michele Jaeggi on Wednesday night at the Swift Current Curling Club. "We only have one game a day," Silvernagle told CurlingZone. "It's not a super-heavy schedule so if we had to play with three (going forward) that would be OK." The field at the $50,000 competition is strong as it leads into next week's Masters event on the Grand Slam of Curling circuit. Switzerland's Silvana Tirinzoni, Italy's Stefania Constantini, South Korea's Eun ji Gim, Sweden's Anna Hasselborg and Japan's Satsuki Fujisawa are some of the top international teams. Domestic entries include Winnipeg's Kate Cameron, Corryn Brown of Kamloops, B.C., and Hollie Duncan of Woodstock, Ont. "There's some really good competition there, which we expected being close to the Slam in Saskatoon," Silvernagle said. "Teams are - especially those international teams - wanting to come over before and get in a spiel before the Slam. We expected it to be pretty tough and it sure is." Silvernagle has trimmed her playing schedule this season and is focusing more on practice sessions as she aims to peak at next month's provincial playdowns. She enters play in Swift Current with a 9-6 record. Schafer, a three-time Olympian for Great Britain, made her first appearance at the Canadian championship last season after joining Silvernagle's team. "She's been really great bringing all her experience and we just clicked right away when we first started playing together," Silvernagle said. Schafer played as part of Abby Ackland's runner-up finishing team at last year's Western Showdown, helping the young Manitoba team to a 7-2 record. Kitz replaced Sherry Just at second this season. Silvernagle said the new-look foursome has clicked. "We all have, I would say, similar personalities," she said. "Different in ways but similar and easygoing. We're just there all trying to achieve one goal." The club will also host an 18-team men's event starting Thursday. Sweden's Niklas Edin, Calgary's Kevin Koe, Switzerland's Yannick Schwaller and American Korey Dropkin are in the field. Play continues through Sunday. Live-streaming feeds and game replays are available on the www.curlingzone.com website. |
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World number three ranked Gyeonggi Province's Gim Eun-ji (Photo: Curling1spoon) defend their national title in a thrilling extra end final Monday in Uijeongbu.
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